A RULING, BUT LITTLE COMFORT, 24 YEARS AFTER BOMBING

Published: September 8, 2007

PHOTO: Families of American service members killed or wounded in a 1983 bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon stood yesterday outside a Washington, D.C., courthouse, where a judge had ordered Iran to pay $2.65 billion in damages for the attack. Describing his ruling as woefully inadequate, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court ordered the payment to relatives of the 241 people killed and to 26 survivors. The ruling was seen as symbolic, as Iran had not responded to the lawsuit. (PHOTOGRAPH BY EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS)